Posted
by
timothy
on Sunday May 17, 2009 @01:36PM
from the how-bosses-expense-ipods dept.

Russ writes "Our corporate media delivery platform is in the process of being refactored (at long, long last), and one of the preferred requirements is the ability to serve streaming video to iPhone and iPod Touch devices, similar to the way YouTube does it — show a screen shot, and when the user taps it, the video should play full-screen and landscaped automatically. The problem comes from the severe lack of documentation Apple provides on how, precisely, this can be done. From what I can tell, YouTube still fires a Flash object to the iPhone despite its lack of Flash support. I have, to a certain extent, been able to review some of YouTube's Flash code and get a hack working on our platform (no screenshot, not landscape, but does play automatically), but I'm sure I'm missing a 'trick of the trade' somewhere that makes the process transparent to the user. Has anyone out there done this before, and if so, how? The standard (and non-standard) Quicktime object/embed codes seem to only provide partial functionality on the iPhone/iPod."

So the parent here brings up a specific case of the general problem: losing these channels will indeed impact some people quite dramatically and all customers to a certain degree. Given the backgrounds of many of the people on this site, let's see what we can due to hasten the solution, i.e. removal of the cable companies. Let's make a list here on this post to what current channels are available on the net (with link to a feed), what shows are available on demand, what new, non-tv content is available and should be considered as a replacement. I'm not talking about downloading individual shows via your favorite P2P application, that can be done but provides it's own set of headaches. Let's get a list going here of links to content as easy to use as Youtube. It should ideally be as simple as opening a link and clicking Play.

Sun has a new system - the Sun Fire x4600 M2
. At first glance you might think it's a quad-socket system, but look again. The Sun Fire x4600 M2 holds eight (eight!) easily swappable sockets. "Armed with current dual-core Opteron processors, this equals 16 cores per server, so a rackful would bring the total to 160 cores. The Sun Fire x4600 M2 will also be able to run with the next-generation quad-core AMD Opteron c

Trumpeted as an 'engineering achievement that marks the company's (AMD) shift to 65 nm architecture', AMD has demonstrated a lab version its quad-core Opteron 8000 server chip , known as 'Barcelona'. Aimed at high-end users dealing with commercial workstations and servers, such as users of multithreaded applications like CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), e-commerce and virtualizatio

k1t10 writes: "GAMES console makers such as Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft may need to re-engineer anti-piracy technology in consoles made for the Australian market to stop consumers using illegal game titles, according to law firm Minter Ellison.

News.com.au reports that Amendments to Australia's copyright laws expected to be passed this week will make it legal for consumers to use modified chips (mod-chips) that circumvent anti-piracy technology built into game consoles if they also overcome measures that restrict the use of DVDs and games titles purchased legally in other regions.

Arnotts Lawyers however, have a rundown on their website stating that "the decision does not spell out whether mod chips are currently legal or illegal in Australia""

Just two months old, Peuplade (peuplade.fr) enables users to find like-minded Parisians in their own neighborhood, or even their own building, to schedule a range of activities, including after-work drinks, jogging groups and block parties. Already some 40,000 people have signed up and participated in more than 1,100 events around town. A rollout in other French cities is planned soon. Beyond recreation and socializing, the site also promotes exchanging small services like babysitting and visiting isolated senior citizens.

tanman writes: Wired reports that research at the University of Washington has shown that the powerful RFID device in the Nike+iPod Sport Kit can allowing for tracking of wearers from nearly 60 feet away. From the article, "The Nike+ iPod gives runners real-time updates about the speed and length of their workouts via a small RFID device that fits into the soles of Nike shoes, and broadcasts workout data to a small receiver plugged into an iPod Nano... In their report, the researchers detail a scenario in which a stalker who wants to know when his ex-girlfriend is at home taps into her Nike+ iPod system. He simply hides the gumstix device next to her door, and it registers her presence as she passes by in her Nike shoes. If he adds a small "wifistix" antenna to the device, it can transmit this information to any nearby Wi-Fi access point and alert him to her presence via SMS or by plotting her location on Google Maps. A thief could use a similar set-up to case several houses at once, figuring out when Nike-wearing owners are at home and when they aren't." You can read the actual report here

From A Far Away Land writes: ""Meteoroids are smashing into the Moon a lot more often than anyone expected.
That's the tentative conclusion of Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, after his team observed two Leonids hitting the Moon on Nov. 17, 2006. "We've now seen 11 and possibly 12 lunar impacts since we started monitoring the Moon one year ago," says Cooke. "That's about four times more hits than our computer models predicted."""

Posted
by
Zonk
on Friday December 01, 2006 @03:23PM
from the business-of-making-shinies dept.

mustardayonnaise writes "CNN Money is reporting that graphics chipmakers Nvidia and AMD (who recently acquired NVidia rival ATI) said Friday that they received subpoenas from the US Department of Justice as part of a probe into potential antitrust violations involving graphics processing units and cards. Each company controls about 25% of the entire graphics chip market. According to the article, Intel, who makes their own fair share of graphics chipsets, has yet to be included in the investigation."

inKubus writes: Core 77 among other places reported on a list of strange units of measurement, online at Wikipedia. The Big Mac index (purchasing power relative to the cost of a Big Mac), Nibbles (4 bits) and Scoville heat units (hotness of a chili pepper) as just a few of the units discussed. Unfortunately missing is the "fonzarelli", a unit of coolness that is only quoted as a fraction of one "fonz".

omb65 writes: "Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a method for training the common honey bee to detect the explosives used in bombs. Based on knowledge of bee biology, the new techniques could become a leading tool in the fight against the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, which present a critical vulnerability for American military troops abroad and is an emerging danger for civilians worldwide.....with any luck we'll be able to train them to swarm on to would-be suicide bombers in the marketplace.
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home .story/story_id/9460"

ice666 writes: Wired has an article about how our Troops overseas are requesting silly string. Turns out they spray this into door ways to check for booby traps and is saving their lives. Not that this is the most technical article out there right now, but it goes to show just how resourceful our troops are getting.
Read more here.

ChilyMack writes: "In the past year, usage of Apple's Safari web browser has increased 45% to represent 4.03% of the market. The article notes that "the continued Safari usage increase can be used as a metric to track the increase in the number of Mac users." New numbers for Firefox and Internet Explorer are also given: with a 52.7% year-over-year gain, Firefox now represents 13.5% of the market, while Internet Explorer market share has dropped to 80.65%, a 6.32% fall. Safari's gain, Firefox's gain and Internet Explorer's loss all represented an increased rate of change over the year-ago numbers."

brian0918 writes: "The Imperial College in London is reporting that genetically-engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. From the article: 'Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as fuel in the future.' The abstract can be viewed for free from the Journal of the American Chemical Society."